The Technique of Peer Assessment: Benefits and Challenges
Peer assessment is a collaborative learning technique that University of the people utilizes to give us the chance to assess fellow classmate’s written productions and to have our own work assessed by them, learning this way from one another. This system, not only, allow us to learn how to be able to craft and provide an effective feedback, guided by an assessment form, but also give us the opportunity to cooperate and interact with classmates from all over the world, building a global network. All under the supervision of an instructor that will participate and intervene when convenient and in case of written assignment adjust unfair grades while providing at the same time with feedback.
This learning tool is increasingly taking part in our lives and has the goal of helping us to be better prepared for our professional future. Another benefit is the opportunity to challenge our knowledge when assessing our peers, allowing us to enhance our own learning process in the meantime. Encourages critical analysis, enabling us to develop new ideas and strategies to improve our studies. When our work is reviewed by our peers, the feedback that we receive, provides us with important information, and potentially motivates us to improve our learning methods, as the peer assessment will be part of our final grades along with discussion forum, learning journal, test and instructor’s grades. This system is also very helpful for instructors as they can promote useful interactions and almost immediate feedback when students participate on discussion forums and when assessing a written assignment they are provided with 3 feedback on one student’s work making the process a bit easier for them when gradidng.
Regarding the challenges that we may have giving feedback in peer assessments or discussion forums, I believe the most important thing to keep in mind is to provide an objective and respectful feedback to encourage the continuity of the discussion and the participation of our peers. This is not an easy task, especially when assessing an assignment, personally I fear the fact that the message I am trying to expose it is not clear to my peer creating further confusion. I would love to have the opportunity to talk face to face to let them know my personal opinion and whether they have done well or there are areas where they can improve. As this is not possible I find that having an assessment strategy to follow, will be an essential tool to avoid over or under grade, providing an objective and impartial feedback.
On the other hand when receiving feedback from our classmates the biggest challenge is to don’t take it personally. Our ego may prevent us to take on board the other person’s opinion damaging our learning process. In this case an open mind it is essential. The feedback provided, when objective whether positive or negative, has the finality to make us understand if we have done a good job or if we need to improve some aspects.
To be able to provide a clear, reliable and effective feedback to my peer’s assignment, I will follow the assessment criteria to assign a impartial score. Consequently the strategies that I will apply to assess written assignments are: read and check that every question has been answered, that the exposed ideas flow and are linked to one another and finally I will check if the citations are correctly mentioned as per APA format. Regarding the feedback in a discussion forum I will firstly check that the guidelines have been met and secondly I will try my best to give an objective feedback to encourage the development of ideas.
In conclusion peer assessment is a great technique that allows instructors to have some help when assessing, and to us give and receive, when done objectively, a valid and effective feedback that will encourage continuous learning.
Reference
- Collaborative and Peer to Peer Learning. (n.d.). Retrieved from: https://www.uopeople.edu/student-experience/quality/collaborative-peer-peer-learning/
